Mark Woods: A four-tassel celebration as the Reid-El quadruplets graduate from Raines High

It’s one thing to get one daughter from birth to high school graduation.

I can’t fathom doing it times four — at the same time.

But that’s what Marolotta Douglas did with her quadruplets: Aset, Neith, Nebthet and Selket Reid-El.

Mom isn’t sure how she’ll feel when the Reid-El quads, as they’re known at Raines High School, cross a stage and turn four tassels. She shrugs when asked if she’ll cry, saying it will be more of a sense of finishing a task.

“We planned for it, and we accomplished it, and now I want to see what they all do with their next chapter in life,” she said, adding there definitely will be a sense of relief. “I’ll feel like a weight is off me, I’ll tell you that.”

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While it’s hard to quantify the totality of that weight today, 18 years ago last August a Georgia hospital measured it as a combined 12 pounds, 12 ounces.

She says she became pregnant naturally (people sometimes assume fertility treatment) and gave birth naturally (people sometimes assume a c-section), becoming the mother of quadruplets in a span of 16 minutes.

The first weighed 3 pounds; the second 3 pounds, 9 ounces; the third 3 pounds, 2 ounces and the fourth, 3 pounds, 1 ounce. 

The girls spent a month in the newborn intensive care unit at a hospital in Macon, Ga.

She and her husband waited eight days before giving them names. They wanted to get a sense of the girls’ personalities and the pick names that fit. Being into Egyptology, they chose Aset (“the mighty throne”), Neith (“the weaver of creation”), Nebthet (“the lady of the house”) and — for the youngest who spent part of her first day on a ventilator —Selket (a dual meaning of “she who takes the breath away” or “she who causes to breathe”).

A very full house

When they returned home to Milledgeville, Ga., it was their mother who at times felt like she couldn’t breathe.

They already had three boys, the oldest one with special needs, in their three-bedroom apartment. They were ready to add a fourth child to the family. But four more?

Her husband was a special needs teacher, kindergarten through third grade. He’d leave for work at about 6 a.m. When he got home, she’d tell him it was his turn. They eventually provided room and board for a woman to live with them and help with the kids.

Nanny Caretta, as they call her, will be at the graduation.

Something like transportation became an even bigger challenge. They found a school bus for sale in New Jersey. But when they went to buy it, they realized it didn’t have seatbelts for all the car seats. They spent a week in that area, looking at other buses, eventually finding one with the necessary safety equipment.

If this were one of those ABC AfterSchool Specials, this might be the part where they overcame those hurdles and lived happily ever after. This isn’t an AfterSchool Special. While there certainly were happy days, there also tumultuous ones.

At one point, Douglas felt like her heart was racing. Pain shot down her arm. She thought she was having a heart attack. She went to the hospital and was told that her heart checked out fine. It wasn’t until she was watching television later and saw something that made her realize what it might be: a panic attack.

“There was a lot of stress and pressure,” she said.

The parents split. There was a custody battle. For a while, the children were with their father and his new wife, being homeschooled. Eventually, she won custody and decided to begin to prepare them for a move from small-town Georgia to the much larger city where she grew up and still had family.

The quadruplets and the youngest of the three boys, Imsety Aten-Re, enrolled at Raines, where their mother graduated with the Class of 1994.

Last day of school

Last Friday was the quads last day of school there. Before walking out the front door, they sat down along with their mother and Jacqueline Brown — who works for Communities in Schools and became their Take Stock in Children mentor — and talked about what they’ve already done, what they plan to do next, and what they hope to do in the future.

Brown recalled them arriving at school shy and quiet. She has watched them blossom. They have a scheduled meeting every Monday. But she says the quads stop by her office nearly every day. And as they leave and head to class, the sisters always say to each other, "I love you."

"They’re delightful," Brown said. "I would describe them as well-rounded. They're smart. They’re beautiful. They have personality."

Their lists of activities and accomplishments are too long to repeat. Suffice it to say, they’ve done a lot. They’ve all played sports, from riding mountain bikes to running. They’ve played musical instruments. They all have had interests in fashion and entrepreneurship. And at Raines, they all have been involved in activities beyond the classroom that pave the way to college.

But, of course, while there are similarities, the quads are four individuals. 

Aset, the first-born, is still quieter than her sisters. She’s determined. Her mom describes her as a “go-getter.” She’s working two jobs now, planning to get her nail technician certificate this summer, then head to Florida State College at Jacksonville this fall in the honors program, majoring in business management.

“I would like to be my own boss,” she said. 

Neith, the second-born, says she's sort of the "mom of the group," the responsible one. Last time she checked class rankings, she was third. She’s one of 250 recipients nationally — and the only local one this year — of the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship. It’s a $40,000, four-year scholarship that includes a guaranteed paid internship at Amazon.

She had three full-ride tuition offers. She picked the University of North Florida, where she plans to major in computer science. 

When she says this, her mom adds, “All right, Miss STEM girl.”

Neith has started her own hair business, Loc’d In By K’Monie — and she and her sisters can look to their 21-year-old brother Imsety for entrepreneurial inspiration and ideas. With 15,000 followers on Instagram, Imsety bills himself as a celebrity barber. And he gives credit to his mother, describing her as a “warrior” who inspired them all, pushing them to be independent, not dependent.

Nebthet, the third-born, describes herself as left-handed and artistic. She played the tuba in the band. She likes to cook and draw. She started doing hair when she was 10, has launched her own business (Kreations by Supreme) and says she might want to one day own a salon. Or maybe be a model or YouTuber. And while she's staying close to home for school, going to UNF on a full ride, she says she definitely wants to travel the world. 

“Aw, Sugar,” says her mom.

Their mom says this often. To her, they all are Sugars.

Selket, the fourth-born, says she’s expressive and, she doesn’t want to say rebellious, but maybe that fits a bit. If she is thinking something, she isn’t one to keep it to herself.

Her mom laughs at this and adds, “You are going to let us know. Yes, ma’am.”

Selket is thinking about joining two of her sisters at UNF or maybe going to Wingate University in North Carolina. She’d like to study forensic science. Or maybe try to make her dreams of being an actress come true. At this point, at high school graduation, who really knows what life holds.

Their mother just knows that they’ve come “a long, long, long, long way” — and, yes, she used four longs — and that they’re “well-equipped to handle whatever life throws at them.”

As part of the Class of 2022, they had a pandemic thrown at them at the end of their sophomore year.

As the quads leave home, their mother has her own dreams.

She has a good job, as a help desk analyst for Bank of America. But she wants to be a life coach. She says she has a name for her company — Coaching 4 Happyness — and wants to share her prescription for happiness. She says she and her daughters have come a long way together.

That’s what they — and undoubtedly many parents at many schools — will be celebrating at graduation.

mwoods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212